Bruce Lee

Two things occurred that finally made me watch Enter the Dragon (1973):

1. I watched Ong-Bak The Thai Warrior, which rekindled my interest in kung fu/muay thai that sort of thing.
2. I've finally been listening to the Wu Tang Clan.

And what can I say but wow. He has muscles I didn't even know existed.

Reading his "physical feats" in wikipedia made me even more impressed. Case in point:
Lee's combat movements were at times too fast to be captured on film at 24 frames per second, so many scenes were shot in 32fps to put Lee in slow motion. Normally martial arts films are sped up

In a speed demonstration, Lee could snatch a dime off a person's open palm before they could close it, and leave a penny behind.

Lee would hold an elevated v-sit position for 30 minutes or longer.

Lee could throw grains of rice up into the air and then catch them in mid-flight using chopsticks.

The movie itself was riddled with stereotypes but seemed to be aware of it--in one line Williams tells the bad guy, "You're like a cartoon character!" Indeed Williams, indeed.

Regardless of the campy nature of the film, I took some screenshots because Lee's facial expressions were just amazing. You must imagine him making YIIIIIAAAAAA sounds!
This is his face right after he kills the man who killed his sister.




This is the scene where he is fighting body guards, look at the reaction of that guy!!





And this is my favorite part of all.

Lacroix Skeleton

I still really, really love this. Christian Lacroix, 2009.

Ideeen

One of my favorite stores, oak is having a crazy sale, the jacket of my dreams included! I got all excited, only to find out that it had already sold out.

So I did some research on the company that makes said perfect jacket: Ideeen. As I started to write about the collection, I realized that I have no idea how to write about fashion. For me it's purely a personal, completely biased aesthetic judgment, unlike the way that I see art as part of history, artist statements, and other documents. So here is my personal analysis: I only like some of the pieces in the collections. Some of the pieces look a little overworked for my taste, and some of it is just plain ugly. However, ideeen uses asymmetry, contrasting fabrics, and cut outs that really work in some pieces. I like the Autumn/Winter 08 collection the best. Here are some of the ones I liked, but go to the website and see for yourself.



Click on it for a larger size!

Light on the Wall

Light on the Wall from Elizabeth Fodde on Vimeo

The song is Brian Eno's Sombre Reptiles.

Another Ed Ruscha Fact

So, I'm kind of obsessed with Ed Ruscha right now. Bear with me. Ruscha is famous for his paintings, but also for his books, most notably Every Building on the Sunset Strip (1966). In one of the many interviews I read this past semester, Ruscha spoke about the process of bookmaking as a way for him to enter into three dimensionality. He then described the way that he extended this into his two dimensional paintings by painting the title of the works on the sides of the canvas as you can see in this image. By adding the title on the side, he made the canvas parallel a book cover and the sides act like the spine of the book. (He didn't do this for all his paintings). I always wonder how the use of different mediums interact for artists, and this is a very interesting example.

Ed Ruscha Business Card

As someone with a very difficult name to pronounce, I think this business card is brilliant. It leaves no room for error, and is also pleasing in its simplicity.